[EBB Sightings] spring arrivals: Western Kingbird et alii

Hi Everyone--

Marcia Marvin and I visited a few spots in Livermore and Dublin today 3/25.
First stop was Murrietta's Well Winery at the north end of Mines Road in
Livermore in hopes of seeing orioles. We saw a N. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, but
no orioles. At Del Valle Reservoir, we missed the Eastern Phoebe, but the
swallow cloud over the lake included CLIFF SWALLOW, BARN SWALLOW, and
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. A small pond at the corner of Springtown Road and
Rhododendron Street had a breeding-plumaged AMERICAN AVOCET. At this spot we
watched a WHITE-TAILED KITE hunt: it struggled to stay positioned in the
wind, but on the second try, it got the small rodent it was looking for (the
rodent seemed to have too long a tail to be a vole). Along Northside Drive
in Dublin (the I-580 frontage road accessible from Tassajara), we saw 6
BLACK-NECKED STILTS, a GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and 3 WESTERN KINGBIRDS. Look for
the kingbirds in the mustard with the blackbirds; the shorebirds were in a
large pond at the east end of the road.

Mark Miller
Pleasanton